Zara Griffen's BTEC Media Blog: Research Dossier - Screenplay

Go Short is an international short film festival.  In 2017 it will be the 9th edition of the go short. It is the main Dutch festival. For five days, 250 films and more are screened in and around LUX in Nijmegen.  Some of the regulations for this festival are:

• The film is no longer than thirty minutes. 
• The film is produced in (geographical) Europe, the director or producer is European or the film was mainly financed by a European country. 
• The film has no dialogue or clear-spoken English dialogue and/or commentary. If this is not the case, English subtitles are required.
• The film is finished after 1st December, 2015.  http://goshort.nl/

Here I have annotated Cuffs Episode 2 final shooting screenplay. I have annotated this with script conventions that I have used and learnt.

Here is a screenplay from the TV series Our Girl.  This scene shows good use of outer presence, it includes gestures, expressions, physical appearance and style of speech. At the beginning of this scene Molly is walking outside the walls of the compound. In the action it states that Molly's breathing becomes loud, that she is getting tense. This suggests that she is nervous and anxious. During this scene you can tell by the style of speech and her movement that she is scared. She is surrounded by Afghan men and guards with guns. In the action paragraph it stare that Molly is very tense and nervous. It shows good use of movement when somebody tugs on her arm. The movement shows that she is startled. This scene doesn't include much of inner presence as it doesn't show the knowledge or temperament of the two characters Molly and Bashira. It also doesn't show the characters likes or dislikes or the characters goals. This scene does include some context, Molly is nervous and scared but when she looks over to the watch tower, James is stood their, with a gun in hand. he points down at two Afghan men, the two men lift their clothing to prove they are unarmed. This gives molly a sense of relief. From this you can tell there is some sort of relationship between Molly and James although you can't identify if the relationship is through a brother and sister or through love you can sense a relationship.

Two short films

This short film is called Imagine, its based on a 10 year old girl called Mollie who suffers from Niemann-Pick Type C. An extremely rare, incurable disease. John F. McDonald wrote the screenplay for this 10 minute short. This short film, uses V.O (voice over) to portray emotion, it makes the audience focus on the little girl who is suffering. V.O is something I am going to use In my screenplay, to portray emotion of my main protagonist.

This short film is called A social Life, the film is based on a women called Meredith who is living the life she has always dreamed of online. Kerith Lemon is the writer for this ten minute short. This short film has a good use of lighting and cinematography which is something I want to portray in my short film, the camera movements are smooth, and editing is unique. The female Meredith is also very similar to my main protagonist. 

Audience Research
For my short film I would like the film to fit both genders and almost all ages and all ethnical backgrounds. I would say my idea would range from ages of 16 to 40. In the demographic table I would say that my short film idea would fit in band E, for the unemployed, students, pensioners and casual workers.  For the psychographic table I would say my short film would fall into the aspirers and mainstreamers. 

After I pitched my idea to the class, Sean and other students gave me feedback of what they liked and what I could possibly improve on, the ending was the main thing students commented on, wondering how it would work visually, I took these comments into mind and changed the script slightly making it easier to film and making the story connect better. 

I made a survey to show what target audience I would be looking for and to figure out what others think of my idea. 

Research into themes, locations and characters
For my short film, I wanted it to fit in the theme of transformation and innocence, In the film I have a character that was once known as being evil but has come back and has changed his appearance and his behaviours, and according to Validmr Propp's theory this character would now be the hero, he saves the main protagonist. 

I struggled finding locations for my short, and where I would like the short to be based, in the end I picked the heart of London, although this is not practically for filming. The location fit with the storyline. 

For characters I used Validmr Propp's character theory, he has eight different character types, these being: the villain, the dispatcher, the helper, the princess or prize, her father, the doner, the hero or victim/seeker hero, and the false hero. His character theories work mainly in super hero films but I wanted to try and make them work in a romantic comedy. I also used Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory, of having an equilibrium, then a disruption then a realisation, which then comes a restored order and then a new equilibrium, this is the structure for my screenplay. 

After researching into characters, locations and themes I researched into existing media texts, for example films and screenplays that fit my theme, locations and characters. One media text I found was a film called When Harry Met Sally,  This film includes a male and a female who are friends but have sexual interactions whilst being friends, this is something I wanted to include in my short, having an ex come back into the mix, could they just be friends or could more happen. 

Another media text I got inspiration from was Sleeping in Seattle(1993) The film is revolved around a long distance relationship and how is it possible to find love again after a big heartbreak and how the mind will always lead you in the right direction, this idea was a big part of my screenplay, my main protagonist had her heart broken, and found love again, but the ex has come back and her mind is unsure what to do, but she puts herself in the right direction, and reunites with her ex and is no longer heart broken.

Bibliography

https://www.goshort.nl/en/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/cuffs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/Our-Girl
https://www.slideshare.net/Katrinabrookes/todorovs-narrative-theory-24244633